Chana the mother of Shmuel Hanavi, prayed for an average son.  She did not want anyone with exceptional talents, nor should he be lacking basic skills.  Her request was granted as she said “here is the son that I prayed for”.  Shmuel HaNavi, grew up to be of the greatest men in our history.  He is considered in some ways to be equal to Moshe and Aron combined.  He anointed the first two kings of Israel, and did many other great things.  We should try to learn an important lesson as to what heights a person can reach when he applies himself.  Shmuel became so great because of his dedication to HaShem.  We too, we cannot say we do not have any special talents or skills, what can we accomplish?  Rather we must use what we were given to its fullest and then we will be great people!

In this week’s Parsha Pinchas is granted the blessing of HaShem, peace and the Priesthood, for defending the Honor of HaShem and executing Zimri for his sin and public blasphemy.  The singular form of the word G-d is used as opposed to the more standard plural form.  When the Ten Commandments were given the singular form was used as well.  This is because each and every one of us have our own responsibility to serve HaShem as He commanded us to do, regardless of what everyone else is doing.  There is no excuse that someone else is sinning therefore we will too.  Pinchas saw Moshe and Aron standing on the side and they did not get up to stop Zimri, he could have told himself that if the greatest men are not doing anything how could he?  But he did not, he knew what the correct thing to do was and he did it.  We should try to learn from this and always do the right thing regardless of what everyone else is doing.

When the Jews were at the edge of the Red Sea, with the Egyptians closing in behind them, they cried to HaShem to save them.  HaShem told Moshe, why are you crying to Me, tell the Bnai Yisroel to travel.  The obvious question is what better thing to do than cry to HaShem for help when we are in a tight spot?!? HaShem is telling us something very important here, when we cry to Him, we bring ourselves closer to Him and we become His.  Once we have reached that level and are relying on Him totally than there is no need for us to cry anymore for He will fulfill our needs.

In this week’s Parsha Bilaam has his prophesies.  There is a mishna in pirkei avos that talks about people who have bad character traits, and they are called students of the wicked Bilaam.  We see that although Bilaam was such a lowly evil person, HaShem still saw fit to grant him prophesy, and to rest His Presence upon him.  We can learn very important lessons from this.  We can never lose hope of developing a connection to HaShem for we will never sink to be as bad as Bilaam was, and if HaShem was able to tolerate him, certainly we can be allowed into His.  Also we see that HaShem is willing to do things beyond the ordinary in order to save the Nation of Israel.

The para aduma has a special characteristic that it makes those that are pure impure, and impure pure.  We can learn from this to our own lives.  Nearly everything in this world has the same capability.  If we use something properly it can improve us and make us better people, even though it also has the possibility of harming us.  Likewise, something which is inherently good can be skewed and twisted and used in a negative way and can do tremendous damage to our souls.  (our bodies as well, depending on what it is)

In this week’s Parsha there is the saga of the Emorite kings, Sichon and Og.  One of the pesukim describing Sichon’s lands has been explained by the Sages as follows:  “Those who rule over their inclinations say, let us make an accounting, weigh the loss garnered by doing a mitzva versus the reward, and the benefit of a sin versus the punishment for it”.  The first step a person must take in order to have control over themselves is to take a personal accounting. We must be sure that the path we are on is the correct one to achieve the goals that we are attempting.  Then each individual action must be measured and decided whether it will bring one closer to the goal or further.  When we make the effort to do the right thing we are promised assistance from HaShem in actually doing it.

When the Jewish Nation was trapped at the Sea, they were told to be silent and HaShem would fight for them.  On the other hand when Amalek attacked them, they were commanded to go to war, why the difference?  Amalek symbolizes all evil and disbelief in G-d.  When we are confronted with physical challenges, we are to strengthen our trust in HaShem and just hang in there.  However, when our spirituality is threatened we must take action to ensure that it cannot be touched.

HaShem commanded Avraham to give his son a bris (ritual circumcision) we are to do the same to our sons (or ourselves, if it had not been done for us by our parents).  One might ask, if G-d wants us to be circumcised why would He not create us that way?  One answer is that by us needing to perfect our physical bodies through an action of our own, we can realize that in order to perfect our spiritual bodies, our souls, it requires much action.  Let us try to perfect ourselves to the best of our abilities.

In this week’s parsha is Korach’s rebellion against Moshe (and HaShem).  Korach was one of the greatest people of the time.  How is it possible that he could have made such a terrible mistake and challenge Moshe as he did?  There is a posuk that says “bribery will blind the eyes of the wise”.  Korach was blinded by his desire for honor.  He was trying to secure a position for himself in the leadership.  We should all realize that we are not safe from this desire and do all we can to protect ourselves from falling prey to the yetzer horah for honor.  How can we do that?  If we can take to heart that HaShem determines who gets what in this world we will be satisfied with what we have and not want honor that is to another.

There is a section in the Torah discussing a rebellious child (ben sorer u’moreh).  The Sages teach us that this has never occured (there are very specific ways to fit this title) we were given this mitzva only to learn from.  One of the many things we do learn from it is that a person’s habits can shape them.  When a person sins, it is generally rooted in a negative character trait.  Each time that action is repeated it further strengthens the flaw.  This can be far worse than the sin itself and can turn us into “sinners”.  On the flip side when a person does what is right and good it also effects far more than simply that action, it will turn us into better people.  It is worth bearing in mind the next time we are faced with a choice.